How your IELTS Scores are Viewed

The International English Language Test System Band Score – one of the requirements for you to pursue your dreams of studying, working, and living in abroad. Understanding what they mean and how they you actually got the band score is important in your preparation for the IELTS.

In order to get your IELTS band score average, some computation is in order. For the Listening and Reading subtest, the methods are quite straight forward. Your raw score is directly converted to a band score. For Writing and Speaking, it is a bit more complicated.

For Writing, your work is judged through four components:

Task Achievement or Response

Coherence and Cohesion

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Lexical Resource

Each component gives you a fourth of your band score.

The same method is employed in computing your Speaking Exam score, except the components here are:

Fluency and Coherence

Pronunciation

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Lexical Resource

Here is a trivia: did you know that your IELTS band score has corresponding descriptions, and that these descriptions are related to your language proficiency?

Here are the descriptions:

Band 9. A band 9 is what you get if you have perfected your reading or listening examination. A band 9 is considered to have native-level fluency in English and can completely comprehend the materials presented in the IELTS. Someone who gets a Band 9 is considered an Expert User of the language.

Band 8. A test-take who receives a band 8 in his or her IELTS is considered a Very Good User. He or she has full operational command with only occasional inaccuracies.

Band 7. This is the most common requirement in the most competitive schools, workplaces, and even migration and consultancy agencies. Reaching the band 7 score and being assessed by the IELTS as a Good User of English is equivalent to receiving a score that can get you a lot of opportunities. Band 7 means having operational command of the language with only occasional inaccuracies.

Band 6. Having a band 6 means you are a Competent User of the language. Essentially this means you have an effective command, with inaccuracies. A band 6 is usually asked from migrants and students.

Band 5. Band 5 is, on average, the lowest possible band score required in many countries. A Modest User of the language means having partial command and many mistakes in expression and comprehension.

Band 4. Someone with an IELTS Band 4 is a Limited User of the language, with frequent problems in expression and comprehension.

Band 3. Being an Extremely Limited User of the language means only having a general understanding of what he or she is reading, or listening.

Band 2. This score is equivalent to being an Intermittent User of English. This person only has basic understanding of the language and experiences great difficulty of comprehension.

Band 1. Essentially, this band score means the test-taker is a non-user of the language.

Indeed, your score in the IELTS examination reflects your abilities to use the language quite clearly, so always try and aim for that Expert User status.